Lancaster Vision

Seminar 15 March 2016

Report

From Education to Employment: Challenges andOpportunities

Tuesday 15th March 2016 / 9.30 -4.30

Lancaster and MorecambeCollege

From Education to Employment – Challenges and Opportunities

Executive Summary

Aimsof the Seminar

This seminar, heldon Tuesday 15 March 2016 at Lancaster & Morecambe College, was prompted in part by risks to Lancaster District’s future economic growth as identified in the recent Turley Report, Lancaster’s Independent Housing Requirement Study, published inApril 2015. Turley indentifies five key risks to long-term economic growth:

  • Inadequate labour force, partly due to an ageing population
  • Inappropriate skills
  • Lack of commercial sites for development
  • Low business start-up rates
  • No clear investment framework for the City

together with skills gaps in the following areas –

  • Financial and professional services
  • Creative digital and media
  • Energy and environment
  • Construction

The seminar aimed to bring togetherthe key players and stakeholders under one roof to discuss how they might

  • Identify/map skills gaps and howthe District’s Skills Strategy might address them
  • Link education providers at all levels with local employers
  • Further economic growth in the area
  • Encourage better communication between all stakeholders

Speakers and delegates were representative of thepublic and private sectors of Lancaster District–Lancaster City Council and Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce, leaders from business, retail and commerce; Lancaster & Morecambe College, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria; and local secondary schools/sixth form colleges. The seminar was privileged to be able to welcome Professor Alison Wolf of King’s College London, author of the Wolf Report, a national review of vocational education 2011, who attended and spoke at the afternoon session.

The presentations and delegate exercises covered the issues of:

  • effective and appropriate careers advice for young people
  • graduate retention
  • the central importance to the economy of small and medium sized enterprisesand greater emphasis on their employment of graduates and apprentices
  • creating and supporting business start-ups and inward investment generally
  • the need for good apprenticeship schemes
  • the changing face of the labour market and pressure this puts on required skills
  • the need for all key players to work together for the betterment of the district

A number of desired outcomes was drawn up by the delegates working in groups, with encouragement for members of the key stakeholder groups to take these forward, so that the seminar should not be seen as yet another talking shop.

Desired Outcomes

A list of eleven desired outcomes arising from the seminar, together with suggested stakeholder responsibilities, is set out in Appendix 1. They focused on three main areas, covering the whole journey from education to employment –

  • Significant cooperation between employers, especially SMEs, and schools, colleges and universities, to offer relevant and appropriate careers advice and work-based learning opportunities to young people, with better promotion of apprenticeships
  • More support for SMEs and business start-ups, encouraging the employment of new graduates from the universities and colleges
  • Long term vision within the City Council, to engage more closely with the LEP and attract funding for economic growth projects, and to exploit the skills and expertise of local stakeholders from all sectors to establish a Delivery Board tasked to plan and deliver dynamic growth to the District

Conclusion

The key stakeholders in realising a new Vision and future for the economic growth of Lancaster and District must work more closely to ensure that

  • young people learning and training here are well advised and supported for their future careers, whether vocational or academic
  • the District’s businesses are supported and equipped to take advantage of the potential workforce being educated and trained here
  • the City leadership develops dynamic plans for growth and provides an infrastructure to support other stakeholders to play their part

From Education to Employment – Challenges and Opportunities

1Introduction

Lancaster Vision

Lancaster Vision, a group operating under the umbrella of Lancaster Civic Society, was formed in 2012 to act as a facilitator between a range of sectors operating significantly on the development of Lancaster’s potential and the future prosperity of the District. Since its formation Lancaster Vision has held three successful seminars (Unlocking Lancaster’s Potential, February 2014; Meeting Lancaster’s Housing Needs, June 2014; Transport in Lancaster District – Visions of the Way Ahead, March 2015), which have fostered fruitful discussions between relevant groups.

The Context forFrom Education to Employment

The most recent Turley Report,Lancaster’s Independent Housing Requirement Study,published in April 2015 and now formally adopted by Lancaster City Council, underpins the Council’s Local Plan and Housing proposals. Looking at the realisation of the City’s Local Plan, Turley indentifies five key risks to long-term economic growth:

  • Inadequate labour force, partly due to an ageing population
  • Inappropriate skills
  • Lack of commercial sites for development
  • Low business start-up rates
  • No clear investment framework for the City

Turley highlighted the following skills gaps –

  • Financial and professional services
  • Creative digital and media
  • Energy and environment
  • Construction

In discussions about these highly significant barriers to the future prosperity of the city with some of the main stakeholders in the City’s Local Plan (Chamber of Commerce, City Council Officers, education and training providers), members of the Lancaster Vision Group heard conflicting messages, arising, as it seemed, from insufficient constructive communication between the various sectors. A fourth seminar to address these issues seemed appropriate.

The Aims of the Seminar

The seminar was promoted by Lancaster Vision,Lancaster District Chamber of Commerceand Lancaster & Morecambe College, to bring together the key players and stakeholders under one roof with the aim of:

  • Identifying skills gaps and howthe District’s Skills Strategy might address them
  • Linking education providers at all levels with local employers
  • Furthering economic growth in the area
  • Encouraging better communication between all stakeholders

The Speakers

Speakers were invited who would be able to represent the various stages from education to employment and to articulate the challenges, opportunities and initiatives which bring about a smooth transition through the process as it currentlyexists in the Lancaster District. The speakers included –

  • Michael Gibson, Chair of Digital Lancashire and committed Lancastrian, who chaired the seminar
  • Andrew Dobson, Head of Regeneration and Planning, Lancaster City Council
  • Brendan Conboy, Associate Headteacher of Thomas Whitham Sixth Form, Burnley and until recently Headteacher of Our Lady’s College Lancaster
  • David Wood, Principal of Lancaster & Morecambe College
  • Fiona Boyle, Employability Manager, University of Cumbria
  • Tara McLaughlin, Deputy Head of Careers, Lancaster University
  • Lesley Burrows, Managing Director, The Job Junction
  • Martyn Butlin, External Communications Manager, EDF Heysham
  • Martin Edmondson, Chief Executive, Gradcore
  • Alison Wolf, Professor of Public Sector Management, King’s College London and author of the Wolf Report, a national review of vocational education 2011

The Delegates

There were representatives from thepublic and private sectors of Lancaster and District– senior officers from Lancaster City Council and Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce and other leaders from business, retail and commerce; from Lancaster & Morecambe College, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria; and from local secondary schools/sixth form colleges.

There were opportunities for delegate participation and feedback in the form of ashort post-it exercise, a variety of workshops and question and answer sessions.

Acknowledgements and Thanks

Lancaster Vision would like to record its sincere thanks to Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce for its assistance in preparing for the seminar, and Lancaster & Morecambe College for its generous provision of the venue and the catering. Thanks also to Janie and Peter from Better with Jam for providing Lancaster Vision with an inspiring logo and brand.

2The Speakers

Michael Gibson introduced the seminar stating that Lancaster is full of talented people with extraordinary potential. The District is home to two first-class universities, the College of FE and bothlarge and small businesses – but there are skills issues.

Michael picked out two sectors in particular:

  • Digital technology, where salaries are significantly higher than average, and
  • Hospitality

Young people, he said, have to be at the centre of all planning and we need to engage with them – they’re the future. The lack of necessary skills is a challenge and local authorities need to encourage the retention of more graduates.Education and local authorities alike need to keep up with the changing nature of employment.

Andrew Dobsonstated that the Northern Powerhouse gives no voice to Lancashire and Cumbria. He believes that young people are not well served at school with effective careers advice, leading to a glut of graduates who cannot then find jobs at graduate level. He considers that there are alreadyhighly paid, technical jobsavailablewith more to come, for example in the NHS and pharmaceuticals, but that there are difficulties in matching skills and retaining graduates. Some of these job opportunities may be in places where people either don’t want or can’t afford to live. He suggests the introduction of private sector careers advice, covering aspirations and lifetime planning and ensuring that there is accommodation available and affordable for younger workers, close to or within easy reach of the workplace.

Brendan Conboy made it clear that any skills gap is not just about graduates but also across the whole range of abilities. He conceded that careers advice in schools had changed very little and was frequently not attuned to the needs and aspirations of the individual. He said it was vital to recognize the needs of the student rather than those of the school. Meaningful courses and life planning should be developed if young people are to be engaged.Many young people, who perhaps don’t anticipate attending university, need help building up their own confidence and resilience, and inunderstanding that there are many routes into employability, preparation for which could be bolstered through eg Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Challenges to providing high-quality independent careers advice in school include diminishing resources and pressures to educate people to achievetargets that no longer seem relevant. Ofsted measures exam results rather than the wider educational experience and even the new English Baccalaureate does not include in its curriculum subjects that nationally we excel in: the creative arts, performance arts and high-end engineering.

David Wood asked if we are “sleepwalking into the future”, locked into a system set by politicians, with no real knowledge of how the future (an inexact science) may develop.

He was sceptical about the rhetoric of the Northern Powerhouse (“Powerhouse of Cards”). Frequent politically drivenchanges to education produce anxiety, and impact badly on the education of the young. National economic policy drives education and training, but doesn’t necessarily encourage strong values and the knowledge of how to live a good life. Education has failed to deliver social mobility, as there are fewer top jobs around and young people need to be encouraged to develop their own skills and be prepared to be flexible. By 2030,the numbers of people aged 65+ in the workforce will be up by 42% and morejobs will become available as older workers retire, rather than being newly created. Given that Lancaster and District is in the 98th percentile of business start-ups and its 15.5% of knowledge-based businesses puts it in the lowest percentile nationally,there needs to be a drive to exploit big economic opportunities; improve partnerships between employers (especially SMEs which dominate the local economy), education and training; advance the digital curriculum; and make a strong case for funding from the Local Enterprise Partnership.He also stressed the importance of investment in high-level apprenticeships and vocational education as an alternative to university.

He said that major growth opportunities arising as a result of the new Link Road, the Health Innovation Campus, Moorside Power Station, the National Grid project and likely developments at Heysham Power Station could make the District an arc of prosperity, but it was up to us to recognize and exploit them.

Fiona Boyle and Tara McLaughlin gave a joint presentation on their work in the Universities of Cumbria and Lancaster respectively to support the employability of tomorrow’s graduates, with the aim of exchanging knowledge between businesses and graduates and fostering relations with local communities. Collaboration between the universities and businesses is important in attracting new talent into industry and in ensuring thatuniversity courses remain relevant and provide work-based training for students. They provide courses on personal development and career development and opportunities for volunteering and working with the community. They anticipate that the Lancashire Skills and Employment Strategic Framework 2016-2021 will increase the number of Lancashire businesses that offer work-based projects and support business growth especially for SMEs. They emphasised the potential benefits to local businesses, including SMEs, of employing graduates, and the linguistic and cultural advantages of employing international students to develop markets overseas.

Lesley Burrows believes that society is polarised between those whose self-belief and self-confidence are fostered at home and those who don’t have that advantage. These attributes can nonetheless be encouraged, so that all young people can be in a position to seize good opportunities. Lesley’s organisation The Job Junction offers tailored programmes which are designed to inspire self-belief and address poor aspirations and careers advice. The programmes help young people to practise employability skills from an early age all through the school career so that they can articulate such skills from an early age. The Job Junction supports businesses to engage and go into schools, while maintaining links with a recognised curriculum.

Martyn Butlin explained the EDF apprenticeship scheme. The two power stations at Heysham were first set up in the 1960s because they were close to the jobs market. It was important to retain the economic impact on the area once the new development had taken root. The apprenticeship scheme, which takes in apprentices living within 10 miles of the site who have not come through the university route, allows EDF to train its own staff, including life skills (using initiative, etc) and a community ethos. He believes that there are at least 150 applicants a year from the area whom they could take on – it should be possible to include them in the wider student circle, with other employers ready to take them on. The EDF apprenticeship scheme also fosters an ethos of social responsibility and diversity, encouraging women into engineering and going into schools with diverse and positive role models.

There is a need to become partners with other businesses and organisations.

Martin Edmondson described how Gradcore, a social enterprise scheme, is creating a graduate city in Sheffield with its programme “Rise Sheffield”. The programme focuses on recruitment with businesses and employability with universities, addressing the two-way disconnect between graduates and SMEs and demonstrating that graduates can bring innovation and growth to businesses. This has produced benefits for the city of Sheffield, for SMEs, for graduates and the universities by encouraging the ambitions of businesses, creating a business culture where employing graduates is the norm and capitalising on the presence of both universities in Sheffield.

Most importantly, all partners are signed up and fully committed to the scheme – Sheffield City Council, the LEP, the universities and the SMEs. The scheme is a partnership of the key players in the City, funded and supported by the City Council and the two universities. Martin believes that this is a model that could be rolled out in other cities.

Alison Wolf introduced the panel session, with the panel drawn from the previous speakers, by setting some of the national context that is also relevant to Lancaster District’s situation. The emphasis on supply-side growth has been damaging – it’s no longer sufficient to produce “oven-ready” employees, because there is an increasing realisation that highly specialised qualifications are not much use in a rapidly changing labour market. There is an assumption that the labour market will continue to change, especially in the hollowing-out of the middle ground, with graduate-level management jobs flattening out and people increasingly having more than one career in a lifetime. Increasing the number of universities has not led to an increase in the number of jobs.